QuoteReplyTopic: Naturals that went texterized or relax? Help Posted: Jun 01 2014 at 12:02am

Right now my hair has been natural for almost 2 years. Prior to that I've been relaxed for years. My relaxed days were good/bad experience because I had manageable hair but didn't know how to care for it and always resulted to straightening it and breaking it off. Overall I loved relaxed hair. Anyway I have a love hate relationship with my hair when it's natural because I love that my hair is growing (I've been taking care of it) but I hate that bad shrinkage I get when I wash it. Nor do do I like any of the natural hairstyles besides the puff which gives me a headache. I don't mind washing it regularly but when I do I would have to use an entire day to deal with my hair and I simply do not have the time for that. Now for the issue I was considering doing a texterizer on my hair but my hair only seems to have a curl pattern when it's wet or has conditioner in it and looks 4a/b but when I dry it and days go by there is no curl pattern and the middle of my hair feels like it's 4c when it's dried up and it's really think and hard to deal with. That is the main reason why I don't think the texterizer is going to do what I want with my hair and why I'm now considering a relaxer again, but this time I would know how to take care of it. Either way I know I'm going to have to spend as much time on my hair cuz their pretty much the same thing but I'm also a person who works out and needs to wash my hair regularly so unless anyone has any success stories with texterized hair n working out I think I might have to go back to being relaxed.

I am a 4a. I have some hair that is curly.....some is wavy. The hair at the back is soft and fine....in the middle it's THICK and wavy....the front is wiry and hardest to work with.

I was natural for three years when I decided to texturize in order to curb my trichotillomania (my natural hair texture + frequent wash'n'gos = fairy knots/ssk which makes my pulling worse). And while it did curb the pulling until it began to grow out....it destroyed my curl pattern. When I put heat on it one time about 8 months after.....what little texture I had left on the ends was completely and permanently gone.

I stopped relaxing because after I had my daughter, my hair seemed to change and relaxing my hair left it with a mushy, almost dissolved texture. And now my texturized ends are more tangly then the unprocessed new growth.....and thin. I can't part with the length yet since I've only been transitioning for a year. In that time I have cut about 4-5 inches off. So I am roughly at the length I was pre-texturizer. I have spent the better part of the last year in yarn braids, yarn twists, crochet braids and wigs to avoid dealing with the two different textures. I certainly can't say this is a success story....but considering what you are looking for, it may help.

The regimen this post is located in (also on page 72) seems like it be compatible with what you are looking for in terms of being able to wash your hair often and having easier to manage hair as well, since moisture= manageability.

Wow, this is my same story. The only difference is when I got to the point you're at with natural hair I ended up getting a texturizer, then baby relaxers, and then I started using the Just for Me Texture Softener, and would stay in weaves to protect my hair. I was taking care of my hair underneath my weaves the best way I could as a college student with limited time, and I was fairly having lots of growth over my college years but this past year I kinda got lazy with upkeep and and I don't know what happened but all my length and hair just started breaking. Life happened and stress and I didn't really even have time to deal with all the breakage so I put it in twists earlier this year and immediately after I took them out I put in a sew-in. I noticed that the front perimeter of my hair(where I have leave-out) has pretty much gone natural, and the inside is probably over-due for a relaxer but I'm not sure if I should go back and attempt to be natural again because I had the exact same struggles you had with your hair being natural and I don't like how much time it takes to maintain it, but my texlaxed hair is going through some thangs too lol. Soo I'm like to texlax or not to texlax? And I was thinking about solely getting texturizers but it didn't really define my natural curl pattern it just made it more manageable to deal with. So I've been trying to research if there are better lines of texturizers out now that people have had success stories with, but I haven't really found any. Well have you made a decision yet on if you're going to get a relaxer?

I actually decided to get a relaxer. But I spoke to my hairdresser about how I don't want my hair fully relaxed so my hair is a little more past texterized and not quite relaxed is what she said. So I guess texlaxed? Anyway I find my hair hangs down when wet like relaxed hair but it has a bit more volume. And when I T-shirt dry it my hair has this cute wavy/curly look that does not stay when dry. My hair gets into a stretched afro like texture when fully dried, well at least after a couple of washes but moisturizing and sealing makes it go back to the way it was. Overall a braid out looks so much better on my texlaxed hair cuz on my natural hair it didn't turn out how I want. A little over a month after I straightened hair and it has grown alot. Right now I wear clip in extensions in my hair and only straighten my leave out. That will soon change when I finish school cuz I will make another wig and get back into fully protective styles because now I can feel the new growth and how much compared to before when I was natural and didn't know what was happening with my hair. So I'm a lot more happier and I'm about 11 weeks post relaxer so I might get another one in 2 months if I get a job, if not I'll survive with my wigs. I hope this helps.

hey thanks for the descriptive update. I like the results you are seeing with your hair. When I was getting tezturizers some years back, I wanted that wavy-ness you described but didn't get that. My hair stayed more on the poofy side. But it was definitely more manageable than when I was natural so I'm still kinda on the fence. But I've been seeing from you and others that it definitely is possible to be relaxed(or texlaxed) and healthy. I'm just not sure what I'm going to do when I take this sew-in out. There is a gang of new-growth just waiting for me to sort out. I'm leaning towards being texlaxed but looking for a really good brand to stick to. I started getting breakage when I started using the Just for Me Texture Softener, but that may have been because I kept switching from a relaxer to a texturized everytime I was due for a touch-up. So yeah meanwhile I'm researching on the boards while contemplating my next hair decision. I've been experimenting with the Maximum Hydration Method on my leave-out(which is pretty much natural) and I'm trying to see how that will turn out while deciding what to do with my whole head.

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